On 'Lay Down,' Rising Rapper OMB Peezy Balances His Native ...

Home » Where Is Omb Peezy From » On 'Lay Down,' Rising Rapper OMB Peezy Balances His Native ...

Maybe your like

THE CHICAGO READER IS BACK IN PRINT! PICK UP A COPY NEAR YOU Close Search for: Search Close Skip to content
  • 🗞 Get the latest issue
  • 🎸 Never miss a show: Sign up for Early Warnings
  • 💛 Support the Reader!
  • 🗓️ Community calendar
  • 🏆 Contests & giveaways

California rapper OMB Peezy has lived in Sacramento since he was 12, but he was raised in Mobile, Alabama. Since this winter, when I first got hooked on the gumbo-funk melody of the 20-year-old’s breakout single, “Lay Down,” he’s risen to the lower tiers of national prominence. He’s attracted the attention of the Fader and Complex (among others), and in May he landed a record deal with 300, but he’s still just the second performer on a four-act bill tomorrow night at Reggie’s Rock Club. The emerging narrative attached to OMB Peezy is that he’s a new avatar of regional rap: I’ve received a PR e-mail that says his “music brings regional rap to mainstream prominence.” This makes me wonder why people are so quick to forget Kevin Gates, whose image and music are so rooted in his hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that when his 2016 album Islah knocked Adele from the top of the Billboard 200 the magazine still described him as a “regional hip-hop star.”

That’s not to say I can’t see why OMB Peezy is considered regional. He’s rooted in two cities with distinctly different identities, and in his music he sounds like a person from those places. OMB Peezy refashioned the track for “Lay Down” out of “Indicted” by Cleveland rapper Lil Cray, and in Lil Cray’s track you can hear the influence of Celly Cel’s 90s G-funk cut “It’s Going Down Tonight”—and Celly Cel is from Vallejo, California, just southwest of Sacramento. (You can go even further if you want: Celly Cel’s song, with its sluggish pace and bottom-heavy funk bass, samples Keith Sweat’s smoldering “How Deep Is Your Love.”)

As fun as it is to connect the dots, OMB Peezy makes those links seem irrelevant. On “Lay Down” every arrhythmic percussive cluster and featherweight key melody sounds created for him. His freewheeling flow feels like it could change at any moment, he breaks up his bars with fleeting half-sung lines, and he proudly emphasizes his southern twang. Even when he raps about his hard childhood, he carries himself like the only path in front of him rises.

YouTube video
a magazine cover that has a large white egg with a Chicago Reader logo on it. the egg has a small crack at the top and floats in front of a yellow background.
New egg, who dis? Credit: Photography by Kirk Williamson | Creative direction by Corianton Hale

The Chicago Reader is back in print!

Our February issue is being delivered to more than 600 locations across the city beginning February 4. Find the closest newspaper box, coffee shop, bar, library branch, record store, or transit stop distributing the Reader near you on our distribution page.

This is the first issue from new editor in chief Sarah Conway, who’s excited about bringing the Reader’s legacy of alternative community journalism into a new era.

Learn more about what’s ahead for the Reader!

We need to be upfront with you.

The Reader is free. Producing it isn’t. And without your support, we can't continue.

So we need you to chip in, even if it’s just a few bucks. The average donation is $45. Many new donors give $5. Every donation is just a fraction of what it costs to produce the Reader—but with support from thousands of Chicagoans like you, we get it done.

So please: take one minute right now to make a donation to the Reader. Then come back, read more stories, and know you’re making this incredible thing possible.

We need to be upfront with you.

The Reader is free. Producing it isn’t. And without your support, it will cease to exist.

So we need you to chip in today, even if it’s just a few bucks.

Donate $5 Donate $10 Donate $25

Leor Galil

Leor Galil (he/him) started writing for the Chicago Reader in 2010. He joined the staff in 2012 and became a senior staff writer in 2020.

Galil mainly covers music, with a singular focus on Chicago artists, scenes, and phenomena.

He's won a handful of journalism awards; he's won two first-place awards from the Association of Alternative Newsmedia (for music writing in 2020 and arts feature in 2022) and a Peter Lisagor award (for Best Arts Reporting and Criticism in 2022).

Galil lives in Chicago. He speaks English and can be contacted at [email protected].

More by Leor Galil

Link Copy link

Tag » Where Is Omb Peezy From